Craft
Connection
Food Puppet Fun
Lesson Overview
Children retain concepts better when they are
involved in active role play. This activity will inspire
creativity, encourage cooperation, and reinforce the
concept of how the foods we eat affect our energy
and how we feel.
Materials Needed
To teach the lesson:
● Food finger puppet/oval face
template copy-ready master
provided in lesson
● Grocery flyers, gardening
catalogs, or magazines with
food pictures that can be cut
apart
● Blunt, child-safe scissors
● Wooden craft sticks
● Child-safe crayons, markers,
or colored pencils
● Miscellaneous craft supplies,
such as yarn to make hair,
buttons for eyes, scraps of
fabric
● Child-safe liquid glue
● Tape
Children will make food puppets for their fingers.
They will also make human forms of puppets, using a face template, craft supplies, and a
wooden craft stick. They will use their puppets to create plays about healthy eating.
Key Concepts
● Eating a variety of foods is good for our body.
● What we eat can make a difference in how we feel.
● Puppets can help tell a story about the importance of healthy eating.
National Food Service Management Institute
The University of Mississippi
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Craft
Connection
Food Puppet Fun, continued
Lesson Background
Role playing through puppetry is a good way for children to
express their creativity and ideas about food. Guided play
with puppets can reinforce healthy behaviors. This lesson is
best introduced after children have been exposed to other
nutrition education lessons in this program such as Wrap it
up!, Growing and Changing, or Food Group Run-Around.
That way, they will have a basic understanding of how
healthy foods provide energy, aid growth, and maintain
good health.
Teach the Lesson
● Ask the children, how do you feel when you eat healthy foods? How do you feel when
you eat foods that aren't as healthy, such as candy, sweet drinks, and fried chips? Allow
children to offer their opinions and ideas.
● Explain how healthy eating can help children feel better and have more energy to do fun
things. Eating too many treat foods can leave children tired and in a bad mood. This
activity will allow children to create a puppet show where they can tell a story of how
healthful food helps children to stay healthy and energetic.
● Introduce the craft activity. Explain that the children will create two kinds of puppets.
One set of puppets will be food characters that they can wear on their fingers. The other
puppets they create will be human characters. Note: This project could easily take place
over several days, since attention spans for small children are often limited.
● Put craft supplies on a table where all children can easily reach them, including copies of
the food puppets and face templates, blunt scissors, crayons, markers, or colored pencils,
liquid glue, wooden craft sticks, food pictures, and craft supplies such as yarn, buttons,
and scraps of fabric.
● Children should color the food puppets first, then cut them out. Younger children may
need assistance with cutting out the puppets. When children are ready to act out their
puppet show, simply tape the puppets around their fingers.
● Additional food puppets can be created using the blank finger puppets. Children can glue
on a food picture or draw a food on the blank puppets.
● To make the human characters, instruct children to draw a face on the oval, decorate it
by coloring it and/or gluing on craft supplies such as buttons, fabric, or yarn. Next, cut it
out and glue a craft stick to the back of the face. Allow glue to dry thoroughly before
using the puppets.
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Food Puppet Fun, continued
● Ask children to create a puppet show where the characters can choose different foods to
eat. Encourage them to act out how their puppets feel when they eat different kinds of
foods. Encourage creativity – there are many ways the children can role play with the
puppets.
● To reinforce lesson concepts, serve a variety of healthful foods at meal and snack time.
Discuss which foods their puppets would like to eat.
Going Further
Children:
● Books to Read
Leedy, L. (2007). The edible pyramid: Good eating every day (rev. ed.). Holiday
House.
● Music for Movement
Smart &Tasty 2: Good Food Tunes for Kids. (2005). Go! Whoa!. Abridge Club
Entertainment.
Leader:
For more information on puppetry, check out the following resources:
● Buetter, B. (1998). Simple Puppets From Everyday Materials. Sterling Publishing.
● The NEAT Solutions company features food and health puppets, as well as many other
nutrition education resources for young children. Access at http://www.neatsolutions.com
● Five Dairy Cows is a finger puppet activity/play from the Nutrition Explorations Web
site:
http://nutritionexplorations.org
This project has been funded at least in part with Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service through a grant
agreement with The University of Mississippi. The contents of this publication do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. Department of
Agriculture, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the U.S. Government. The University of
Mississippi is an EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504/ADA/ADEA Employer.
For more information, contact NFSMI at 800-321-3054 or www.nfsmi.org.
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Food Puppet Fun
Craft Connection: Food Puppet Fun
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